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Rocker looks good! I always thought that I was pretty good with a rattle can, but you're a DaVinci.
I totally understand the reluctance to break out the spray gun... For me it's the cleaning. It's way worse in my mind, than it is in reality, but that's why I am so hesitant.
Ive got the "I told you so" post saved in my draft folder for when you post that you wished you had just gone ahead and done the whole car. 🤣
Thanks for the compliment. And, I'm good with the "I told you so". I'll probably be saying this to myself when the time comes. Wouldn't be the first time.
Part of the rattle can success is 50 years of failures, but learning [eventually] what not to do!
There's still a very fine line between enough paint that it flows together, but not so much that it runs. I can't tell you how many times I got out the rags and thinner, wiped all the paint off and started over.
The directions on the can always say " 3-4 light coats". That might give coverage but you need that last coat or 2 really wet to get the paint to flow together, just on the edge of runs. Like I said, a fine line.
I probably would have done an all over paint but I've got the boat, the VW bus, a Mustang with the engine out and to be honest, bearing down on 68 gives me a little pause for thought. How much perfection does one really need, especially for a driver?
Struggling to balance my OCD with a small percentage of practicality!
I probably would have done an all over paint but I've got the boat, the VW bus, a Mustang with the engine out and to be honest, bearing down on 68 gives me a little pause for thought. How much perfection does one really need, especially for a driver?
Struggling to balance my OCD with a small percentage of practicality!
Forging ahead,
rob
Well, then. .
Welcome to the OCD recovery support group!
My advice: Embrace the rock chips. They are little badges of freedom. It's impossible to drive anything in Alaska without having the front of your car peppered with imperfections like the face of a 13 year old in the throws of puberty.
I fought it for a long time--and actually got pretty good with a little touch-up bottle.
But then I realized that those were indicators of the car being driven and enjoyed.
I just deleted the, draft... Go be your imperfect self. 😁👍😋
" It's impossible to drive anything in Alaska without having the front of your car peppered with imperfections like the face of a 13 year old in the throws of puberty."
Ha! that's a good one!
I work on the boat for therapy, then the Mini was therapy from 2.5 years of working on the boat.
I never thought I would get the benefit of additional therapy from joining this forum!
Not sure what's next besides brake lines. [I did email them for an update on the order] I do have finish the rocker and I can at least put the drivers side inner fenders etc... back together. I still have to do something with the outside of the wheels and paint the bumper cover.
So the guy from the body shop came over along with his body guy. Both really nice guys. We first talked about fixing the door, and blending on to the quarter and the front part of the fender. I held the newly painted rocker up to the old paint on the car and it's about 2 shades darker.
I've seen the body guys work and it's that third world country amazing. Like the guys in India that can make an AK-47 over a charcoal fire with a hammer and a file.
So anyway, we're talking, [actually they're talking to each other in Spanish and I'm mostly just standing there wishing I had taken Spanish in high school instead of stupid French].
He's looking at the chips in the hood and the unpainted bumper cover and they're jabbering to each other and again I'm feeling lost, then they realize I'm still standing there looking stupid, then we're talking about painting that and blending to the drivers fender. Then we're looking and the only thing left is the drivers door and quarter. So he says full paint, $1550. Which with what I know is a real bargain.
The problem is, I'm perfectly capable of doing the all over paint, which would be probably damn near show quality as it's all in the prep and the finishing and maybe $300-400 in materials at the outside, BUT would mean 2-3 weeks [at least] of prep, primer, sanding, painting, sanding, compounding and polishing...on a car I really haven't driven yet and has 150K on it.
What I don't have the skills in is repairing a panel and "blending". Blending is a whole other skill level.
So, considering it's a $500 "Bargain Mini", [hahaha... right]!] I'm going with his $550 quote to repair the door and blend the paint. I'm sure it will hurt me every time I walk up to the car and I'll be kicking myself but it is what it is. At least it's the passenger side, right? But, best of all he's ok with doing it in my shop so I can get that done and continue with putting everything back together.
Next, I started to sand the transition between the blue and the flat black on the rocker. But it seems the clear coat on the blue is still a little soft despite the fact it's been 3 days.
Discretion being the better part of valor, I decided to let that alone for a few more days and got the wheels out.
Wheels;
If you recall a few posts back I had sanded, taped up and painted the inside of the rims. [A 3-4 day process. I think taping was a full day] The spokes were pretty scratched up, for one reason, as they protrude past the edge of the rim, a recipe for disaster.
I was really struggling with what to do. If I thought I could really clean the area where the fake socket heads bolts were I probably would have got to the big guns and sanded and painted the entire outside of the rim, probably at the same time and with the same black as when I did the bumper cover.
But, I thought with my new found 3M Perfect-It skills, 1500 wet, 3000 wet, 5000 wet, compound then the # 1 and the #2 polish, I would give that a try. Much less invasive and the good thing with wheels they're powder coated which is hard and thick reducing the possibility of sanding or burning through the paint.
So that worked pretty well and the wheels, [at least one] look good enough for me and my $500 Bargain Mini. One or two have spoke damage down to the aluminum so there's a tiny bit of repaint but we'll cross that bridge as it approaches.
It's a little hard to take photos of black wheels, but here's the first one and a "before".
robj
The back now looked great, the front, not so much.
After sanding, compound and polish. Not the best pic...
If I can get them all to look this good I'll call it a success...
Wax on, wax off it's all a process. So sold on 3m Perfect-It system... The 4" pads worked great on this part.
And lets not forget this. !5 y.o. car. Not too shabby...
There's an expression in the boating world, the only thing more expensive than a cheap boat is a free boat.
robj
:D :D :D I'm working on boats every day. Mainly narrow boats. The cheap ones definitely cost a lot more to make them right.
I got the Mini as a part of a payment, so it was not really "free", but I like it soo much. She is my daily driver rolling project
So continuing on. As I was still concerned the drivers side rocker clear coat was still a little soft I continued with the wheels.
After a car does need wheels.
I went over each wheel [mostly the spokes] with the 5000 grit wet, then compound with a 4" pad then 2 steps of polish. I sort of screwed up one wheel that I had already re-painted cutting through the new paint. I had to sand that and re-paint. I used the Pro-15 Top Coat this time as I think its a "harder" paint.
So 2 wheels done, 5000 grit, compound polish steps 1 and 2. , Two that need the re-painted spots sanded and compound etc...
Then I need to try and figure out how to tape off the black to clear-coat the edge.
I ordered some "spoke brushes" as the inner edge of each spoke have these stupid fake Allen head bolts and it's really hard to get that area clean.
Think about that before buying wheels. Clean with no stupid **** is the way to go. Easier to keep clean.
Anyway, after wet-sanding the 2 repainted spots. Compound and polish, then scrub everything with hot soapy water, then cleat with thinner then figure out how to tape the spokes and clear coat the outer edge. At the rate I'm going I'm going to have 10 + hours in each wheel.
What a PIA. Shoulda just bought new wheels...
Seems like we did this once before...
Hoping this blends out...
And If I can make them all look Like this I'll call it a win...
Re-Posted from Hatch-Talk to maintain thread continuity;
So the rear hard lines have some rust. No as bad as some I see but won't pass inspection in Md. I read a few posts and it seemed some say they are NLA, some said they do come pre-bent and some say you get a long straight piece.
1 or 2 of the OEM sites I checked did say NLA but Mini Parts Direct appeared to have them. Great, but holding my breath they are pre-bent. Heard from them today. One came in and its straight and in a 9' box and the shipping was crazy. I searched all of the after-market makers of pre-bent SS Lines and nothing for Mini.
So I'm going to get a straight section and bend it, [I have all the tools].
I was going to go with these lines. A friend tried them and they are very easy to form without kinking. You can order the exact size and length with the correct fittings.
My question is; Does anyone know the exact length of both rear lines when straight? And the size of the fittings? And are they a standard double flare or a bubble flare?
Thanks, robj
Post/reply from Way Motor works;
Yes we've ran into this before. You can get straight lines and make them up, but it is a lot of work and time.
So we actually save them from cars we part out and just do the swap that way as they will always be bent right and easier to replace.
Rob; I took a chance and called Mini Parts Direct back. Mark in Mini Parts was VERY helpful.
As they don't list different fittings available on each end, I wrote to them to see of this is possible. Also asked if a custom length is available. What I get for 2654mm is 104.5 and 2650mm /104.3 inches. They list 104" which would probably work as I guess I could "cheat" a 1/2" somewhere but the exact length, 104.5 and 104.3 would be better.
I'll report back when I hear from them. robj
Rob again;
Mr.Works,
It seems like the rear line are rust magnets. Appears there's a real sales opportunity here [hint hint] for one of the manufacturers of pre-bent S.S. lines[or some enterprising Mini parts supplier, hint, hint...] .
I just replaced every line on my '05 Chev. 2500 for about $200. All pre-bent and fit perfect, but came in a pretty big box. The long sections were bent in half but that wasn't an issue.
robj
P.S. How much is the shipping on the salvage brake lines. [21051]
So while waiting for the brake line dilemma to resolve itself.
Had another "Aw Sh*t" when compounding/ polishing one of the repaired spots on the wheels, I cut through the new paint to the metal. Darn! So, sand, repair, try again.
Damaged door and re-paint
Took the mirror and the door handle off the door that needs repaired/painted and sanded the door with 400. It's really a struggle not to say "screw-it" and paint the entire car myself.
I'm sure I'll regret it. But, knowing my OCD tendencies it would take 3 weeks I'm sure. I would base coat, clear coat, and probably sand the orange peel from the clear until it's show car quality. On a $500 car with 150k miles. Get a grip rob...
The guy from the body shop came over tonight and they're going to repair the door, paint and blend tomorrow. I'll probably get him to lay the clear on a little heavy so I can sand it out without fear of cutting through. Plus I'll give the guy doing the work a "fifty" so he stays focused. Nice kid for sure. It's a pleasure to give him a little boost.
Bumper Cover;
But, I did pull up my big girl panties and got out the spray gun for the bumper cover, scoop and tag holder.
I'm not sure why using the spray gun is so intimidating. I've painted 2-3 cars, [some time ago] and it went fine. Maybe it's that fact that if you screw up, [and it doesn't take much to screw up] that it's so much work to fix it and start over. Maybe it's getting the mixing right. And one little run... such a fine line between getting the paint to flow out and a run. And then there's clean up. Or maybe it's all of the above.
Plus, to pull the tigers tail as much as possible, I'm spraying single stage black Urethane. Single stage! No going back and fixing anything, One and done. [Actually, this is Eastwoods Single Stage urethane which you can sand and clear coat over, [being of strong faith, I didn't buy the clear. One must be strong in the face of adversity!]
You can also sand and polish, but on the bumper cover with all the sharp edges that's a recipe for disaster, like cutting through an edge.
So even thought there's a few "dust bunnies", I'm going to do my very best to ignore then and just bolt this *ucker on.
But, prior to that I need to tape off and paint the flat trim paint on the continuation of the fender flares. All the grill parts are "flat" and I think that, along with painted the "flared" part will make the black bumper cover look "intentional", not like I got a cover from a junk yard and never painted it. The gloss hood scoop against the blue hood and the tag plate may help as well.
Plus I got the 2 black stripes, [just black, no pin stripe along the edge] to tie it all together. Plus the roof is gloss black. I painted the mirror covers black but I may redo them in gloss, to go with the gloss theme on everything but the wheel trim.
One thing for sure, My buddies will know it's me! Shouldn't be another like it.
So without further adieu, black bumper cover, scoop and tag bracket.
At least it's shiny....
Not sure what the spots are in the photo, [clean the camera lens maybe?] but they're not present in person.
It's going to be soooo very hard to resist not wet sanding and polishing but I'll try my best. I'm taking the rest of the night off and having a beer or 5...
Like I said, how do you get good at stuff? By screwing things up and having the chance to do it twice. and hopefully learning something from it.
When I left last night the bumper cover looked great. Smooth, no runs, very few dust bunnies.
This morning? Not so good. A bunch of tiny spots everywhere. Grrrr!!!. The guy from the body shop was here doing the door and with one glance said, "moisture". Water in the line. As soon as the words left his lips, I thought, "Oh Sh*t." I forgot to drain the compressor AND forgot to drain the water separator before painting...
So careful about everything else, what a bone-head, dumb a** thing to forget.
Oh well, I'll probably never forget to do that again. So, let it harden up good, wet sand and paint it again.
A short piece of "desiccant hose", to further dry the air. I think I forgot about this as in my shop at home the air goes through a drier that's like an a/c unit that cools the air and removes all the moisture so I never have to worry about it. But still feel like a dumbsh*t.
Oh, and I did order the clear coat. I knew I would....
2 steps backward, 1/2 step forward...
robj
Tiny little spots... Really bad on the scoop. They don't look that bad in person but def. calls for a do-over.
Bumper cover mostly on the edges, still a do-over. Grrr....
So despite the bumper fail some other progress was made. The dent/scrape in the passenger side door was repaired and side of the car was painted/blended from the rear twilight to the front fender..
The guy from the body shop next door was great. After the repair he started laying down the base coat but he wasn't satisfied with the color match. [obviously his young eyes are better than my old eyes]
He called and the paint supplier showed up with 4 different mixing cans with pumps and a sunlight gun, [on a Saturday no less] and they custom mixed the color to match better. Hard to tell until it's color sanded and in the sun but he,/ they certainly gave it their best effort.
Amazingly they need to add some red to the paint to get the color right. Who knew?
Of course the body guy and the paint guy were taking to each other in Spanish so I had no clue what was going on.
Anyway, base coat, medium coat of clear then a wet coat of clear and done.
I could have done all this myself except for the blending, but I watched carefully and the body guy was explaining what he was doing the entire time so it was a good learning experience for me.
The body shop is charging me $500 and I gave the body guy $100 cash when he first started so he was happy and is probably why he went "above and beyond". He was there from 10am to 8pm, and was really particular about what he was doing. I think it was a bargain.
Money isn't everything but it's a darn good lubricant..
Now wait for that to harden, [probably a few days] and wait for the bumper to Harden, wet sand and repaint that.
While waiting I'll take the rear brake lines off and figure out what I'm going to do with them.
rob
Pre-Filler.
Area that was blended and primer.
Base coat and my new friend Alfredo from El Salvador. Nice young man, taking English lessons and very motivated. His goal is to have a shop of his own and I think he'll get there. We had plenty of time for long talks in between coats.
Clear coat. I can't wait to color sand and polish.
I've decided to cut the brake lines in the back where they split and go over the tunnel. I ordered 3/16 nickel/copper line, 10mm fittings and 10mm connectors, but I still need to figure out how to get the old line down without bending it all out of shape to use as a pattern.
Hatch talk post. Photos there. As I know my rusted rear hard lines won't pass inspection, [and should be repaired regardless] and as pre formed are NLA, I started to [attempt] to remove the pass. side rear line. Using a heat gun on the clips I managed to break only half of one.
My question is, "DID THEY BUILD THE CAR AROUND THE BRAKE LINE????" Just kidding sort of. I've been under a lot of cars in 50 years but have never seen anything as convoluted as this mess. About 6 months ago I replaced all the brake lines on my Chev. 2500 with Stainless, [a pre-bent kit] That entire job wasn't as big a pain as this seems to be. But then again, "truck".
And not to be a "Richard" but I know how to flare brake lines correctly so I don't need help along those lines. Just don't want anyone wasting their time with that part.
I did see in one of the posts, [which I can't find now] where someone had a link to brake line "connectors" but can't seem to find it now. Any hints there? I think I'm going to cut the lines where they go over the "hump" as from there forward, mine are in good shape. That will also let me "snake" them over the parking brake cables to avoid removing them.
I can't imagine what the dealer would charge for this...On the other hand it might be worth it.
Things that prevent the brake line from being lowered;
The left side sub mount [not too bad as it's near the front of the line] The exhaust hanger shield[not too bad, 6 bolts] The rear exhaust heat shield [again not too bad] Parking brake cables [now that one sucks] The fuel line. [there's disconnect but I assume that's under pressure] Two plastic vacuum lines [that go to something that I'm not even sure what it is] The thing that I'm not even sure what it is [photo below, please enlighten me]
I lowered the "thing" but I think I need to disconnect the lines to; #1 move it out of the way, and #2 lower the plastic lines to lower the brake line.
Please check out the photos and the questions in captions. in Hatch Talk
So Bumper Paint Part 2.
After the first fail due to moisture in the line, I gave it another shot, no pun intended... So the first fail was sanded with 400. Then another coat of single stage [Eastwood Boulevard black.] Everything set per their tech sheet, PSI, mix, plus measured 10% thinner and it went on [to me] in globs. Turned the air pressure up, turned it down, not much change. Despite 70 degrees in the shop I ended up going to about 15-20% thinner and it was better. But not much...
Original Paint job sanded to remove moisture spots. Step 1.
Step #2. First re-coat. Did not flow out well. [probably with the cooler temp. in the shop- 68 degrees after turning the heater off to reduce dust bunnies] 20% thinner probably needed, I had a 10% mix. Trouble is, single stage is like old-time enamel. A very fine line between flow and run.
Yuck! More thinner. needed I'm thinking. I did a second coat with more thinner after about a 15 minute flash time. A little better but not much. I was going to go right to clear but it could go either way. Smooth it out or a lot more sanding.
Much better! With the orange peel from the single stage, I went with 2 coats of clear, [actually 1 wet, then flash time and the second was more like 1.5 coats, really wet,] really wet coats of clear. It ended up working out really well, but I was laying the clear on really, really heavy [mostlt the second coat]. I figured it would work out or result in a lot of sanding for try #3.
Dang! Pretty much like glass. [or close enough for me] Every once in a while things work out. That's what I'm talking about!. Possibly luck prevailed... but I'll take it. 10 minutes flash between the single stage and the clear, Then clear thinned about 20%. and I layed that on wet and heavy. Then a 15-18 minute flash, then another coat really wet, which to be honest was really more like 1.5 wet coats. [Really heavy,] I really can't believe no runs. It was really on the edge.
But, no runs!!! [I think it was a really fine line there. I'm actually pretty surprised] But in the end it really flowed out well.
Looks better inperson All's well that ends well but it was touch and go. I'm really tempted not to mess with it, but I could wet sand the flat sections then compound and polish. I'm going to let it harden up for 2-3 days [at least] then decide about cut and polish. But again, looks pretty good and I may decide just ti leave it TF alone.
All in all, it went well but it was definitely touch and go, Still a little "bumpy" but only on the very bottom which no one will see unless I'm running you over.
I need to put everything back together, plus brake lines and coolant fill but getting close.
robj
If anyone, [all 3 of you, Ha!] is wondering about lack of posts, current job is replacing rear brake lines, hard and soft. Posts and progress on that is in 'Hatch Talk'
The pedal is still hard so we can check that off. Calipers, pads, rotors, SS flex lines and new hard lines. Check, Check and check.
Although there are about a gazillion bits to bolt back one and about 10 different cups of fasteners for everything to empty, not to mention finish color sanding compound and polish the entire passenger side, and the hatch and the roff, I thought I would switch gears.
The front bumper cover is painted but needs color sand and polish. I figured temporarily mounted on the car would be the best place to do this I bolted it up.
I also wanted to see how the black bumper on a blue car looked. The roof is black, mirrors black, [might repaint them with a glossier black], wheels are black, trim is flat black.
I think I like it. The stripes will be all black, no white border, [they're still on the backing paper]. I think the stripes actually tie it all together.
If nothing else it'll be distinctive!
So here you go; Test Fit. Thanks for tuning in.
robj
Like I said, "distinctive" Remember, no white on the stripes, ignore that.
Well, "distinctive" at the very least... It's actually starting to really grow on me.
Yesterday I went all in and bought/ordered the Borla "aggressive" exhaust. Now I'm really in touch with my inner 18 year old...
Wheels;
If you recall, the rims looked pretty bad. The clear coat had failed and they were scratched and had some pretty noticeable curb rash. I had previously sanded and painted the inside of the rim, Then filed the road rash. Then wet sanded, compounded and polished the outside spokes. Then sanded and blended the curb rash on the spokes, some places 2 times as I went through the paint when polishing the spots.
The last thing was taping up the skinny line between the outer edge of the bare aluminum that needed clear coat [direct to metal clear[ and the black. And a fiddly job it was as it needed to be pretty exact.
I started by touching up any spots with the gray scotch-brite then giving the whole edge a quick once over. Then I cleaned them with acetone using white rags until there was no residue coming up the the rag, then taped them off.
What really helped was the little stand on casters that I had made to sit my laptop on when working on the car. I could put the wheel on and spin the cart in circles instead of spinning the wheel.
Get new tires on Tuesday. Getting closer.
rob
[i]The little cart helped, especially with the initial taping and def. with the painting.
First of 2 coats on each wheel. The clear dries really fast.
This is the wheel that had the worst of the curb rash. One deep nick I couldn't get out remains.
Before.
More before. Yikes!
After.
All in all turned out pretty good. $175 a wheel new, so $700 worth of wheels. But on the conservative side, 60 hours labor.
I think I'm singlehandedly keeping the tape people in business.
Now back to bolting on bits and pieces. After that I think I'm going to sand, compound and polish the roof. I don't want to get the rest of the car done and mess that up when doing the roof.
robj
First used the blue plastic tape to be exact and make the curves, then 1/2" then 1"
Rob, don't you think you should drive it once or twice before spending all the time / money? Just sayin...
Super jealous of the quality of work. Most of us youngsters (59) don't have the skills, shop, or time. Or patience.
Anybody want a one-ball-modded exhaust system? I think Rob has a spare.
Steve,
Yes, that is what a sensible person would do. But I've never been saddled with that burden. I'm in so deep now if anything is amiss I'll just have to fix it!
I do have people sometimes comment on the "quality" of my work. To be honest, it's mostly "patience" and I guess having a high standard, [speaking of burdens, that's a real burden] and a willingness to do it over if it's ****. A fail is just another chance to do it better...
And yes, the one ball is available. Lots of work went into it. Local pickup for a 30 pack of Natty Boh. And if you're local you know what that is.
And a set of pretty new tires for really cheap. 2 have plugs but they probably don't have 3000 miles on them.
robj
P.S. I did an edit on my post and a photo disappeared. Tried to fix that and another photo disappeared.
Missing photos below.
Thin blue plastic tape to take the curves then 1/2" then 1" then filled the rest with wide tape.
The little cart I made for my laptop but helped with taping and really helped with painting.
After listening to the video about 50 times I said WTF and ordered the Borla Aggressive Exhaust. I just love the sound it makes, deep, very little "pop", [a grown-up sound]. And if you're going to have a second or maybe third, [fourth?] mid-life crisis may as well share right?
If you jump right to almost the very end they have a sound comparison between the Touring and the "Aggressive". No comparison to my ears...
Well this came today but I'm waiting on some new hangers so it might be a day or two.
I'm not sure it looks like $800 but I think it will sound like it.
And yesterday, new tires on the reconditioned rims.
So a very good friend runs a Goodyear store. [The boss lives in Florida - smart guy, but the owner takes very good care of my friend]. I picked out what I thought was a nice set of Goodyear High Performance All-Weather tires.
He said, "you don't want them, look at these". [this was texting] He pointed me toward General GMax High Performance - All Weather. Generals are actually made by Continental and I went online and looked at a bunch of reviews, all really positive, Tire Rack had some really good comparison videos.
All for $110 a tire!
I was impressed and they actually feel "sticky" when you rub them. My buddy knew how much work I put into the rims and didn't trust the tire-buster so he mounted and balanced them himself. A real friend!
Next up, the repaired /painted side. It takes a bit of fortitude, [*****?] to put sandpaper to new shiny clear-coat with hardly any orange peel and think you can make it better...
